Friday, the 30th April, marked a red-lettered day for Kolkattans. A sand-based turf was inaugurated on that day in the premises of Khalsa High School, Bhawanipore.
Four-time Olympian Leslie Claudius followed by Dhanraj Pillay and Blair Hopping of New Zealand pushed the ball into the goal, marking the inauguration.
Besides these hockey personalities, other stalwarts present were Bir Bahadur Chhetri, Gurbux Singh, Keshav Dutt, Baljit Singh Saini, Vece Paes, and a surprise visitor was the former Davis Cup captain Naresh Kumar and Blair Hopping, the operational chief of the Tiger Turf, New Zealand. He had been till recently a member of the “Blacksticks”, as the New Zealand international squad is known.
There were two full size goalposts with nets at the ends of the ground and the striking circles were almost full size. At the center of the ground a tennis court was marked out with two removable net posts. The sand based all weather turf is actually the Tiger Turf of New Zealand which does not need water for its maintenance. The 50 x 25 yds Tiger Turf has cost the Khalsa School managing committee Rs 50 lakhs, far lower than water water based turfs’.
There was a cultural programme in which the Khalsa School girls first staged two group dances (hockey stick in hand) to the songs “Chak De India” and “Jai Ho”. An exhibition match followed this between the former Olympians led by Dhanraj Pillay and the Khalsa School team led by Blair Hopping (as a guest player). Dhanraj showed some of his bedazzling moves while the ex Olympians showed their vintage skills. Blair Hopping was a picture of precision with tactical play.
The match ended 3-3, the former Olympians giving a show of vintage hockey while the Khalsa Boys tried to out do the ageing Olympians with their speed and energy. The former Olympians’ team consisted of Dhanraj Pillay (Captain), Dilip Tirkey, Gundeep Kumar, Anand Mandapaka (GK)’ Baljit Singh Saini and Sanjiv Kumar.
Baljit Singh Saini, a product of the Khalsa School, said in his interview at the end of the exhibition match that the artificial turf would also be made available to children outside the Khalsa School.
It was a source of great joy to the motley crowd of hockey lovers still in the city to see such a constellation of stars of the past and not so distant past and some breath taking skills, and to this hockey lover who has grown up loving and dreaming hockey a much needed relief from the money driven frenzied barrage of Cricket from the media.
Diary of the writer: It was nearly 4 PM when I was able to extricate myself from work in the hospital and set out for the Khalsa English School in the heart of the city at Bhowanipore, where the first sand based mini hockey (6 v 6) artificial turf was to be inaugurated. I saw a small posse of Policemen outside the School gates chatting and the entrance right up to the ground inside the school was lined up with the Khalsa School students with their hockey sticks. Inside, the clay school ground as I had seen it earlier was no longer there and in its place there was a green 50 yds x 25 yds artificial turf. On the eastern edge of the ground there was a concrete gallery and an iron grill had fenced off the turf. Inside, the school building reverberated with the sound of the Punjabi “dholak” played by a drummer in Punjabi ethnic wear. Some players of the Khalsa Scool team came down from the roof of the four-storey school building gliding on a rope displaying their hockey sticks.